The present invention relates generally to medical devices and more particularly to a device for cutting the end of a catheter.
Minimally invasive medical procedures have become common in the medical profession due to the lower risk and trauma associated with minimally invasive procedures and the lower cost compared to open surgical procedures. Minimally invasive procedures generally involve gaining access to an internal region of a patient like a vessel by puncturing the patient's skin, the intermediate tissues between the skin and the vessel, and the wall of the vessel. An elongate medical instrument may then be inserted through the access site so that the distal end of the medical instrument is located within the patient's internal vessel, while the proximal end of the medical instrument remains outside the patient's body. The physician may then manipulate the proximal end of the medical instrument outside the patient's body to move and orient the distal end of the medical instrument to a location within the vessel where treatment is desired. Thus, a treatment site within a patient's vessel may be treated from outside the patient's body through a relatively small access site that is located some distance from the treatment site. By contrast, conventional open surgical procedures would require opening the tissues immediately adjacent the treatment site so that the surgeon can gain direct access to the treatment site.
One type of medical instrument used in minimally invasive procedures is a catheter. Generally, a catheter is any type of elongate tubular device that is designed to extend into a patient's body through an access site. Catheters are used for numerous purposes, such as infusing drugs or nutrients into a patient's body, withdrawing bodily fluids from a patient's body, and delivering various types of devices to a treatment site within a patient's body, etc.
While many catheters are designed to be used by a physician in the state the catheter was originally manufactured by the manufacturer without any modifications, some catheters commonly require special customization by the physician to suit the particular use or patient that the catheter is being used for. For example, peripherally inserted central catheters (“PICC”) are often cut to length by a physician or the physician's staff so that the distal end of the catheter will be positioned at a specific location in the patient's body. This is typically done by cutting off a portion of the distal end of the catheter as it is provided by the manufacturer with a razor or scissors to shorten the length of the catheter to the overall length that is desired. However, this type trimming usually results in a blunt end that can present sharp edges that may scrape and traumatize the internal tissues within the patient's body. Alternatively, where the physician attempts to manually trim an atraumatic end on the catheter, such cuts are typically non-uniform and/or roughly cut due to the difficulty of manually cutting a non-straight end. Also, some cutting tools like scissors may leave a rough end surface that may encourage the accumulation of blood clots or bacteria.
Accordingly, the inventors believe that it would be desirable to provide a cutting tool that a physician or the physician's staff could use to customize the distal end of a catheter with an atraumatic end.